Thread: American Pickers..

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Mike, I've done two of those storage auction things so far and pretty much lost money on both, so my experience was like yours. I had to rent a truck both times to get all the stuff out of the units, it was hard work in 95 degree heat, and what I ended up doing was cleaning out a storage unit for someone else. Those visions of finding priceless antiques and expensive guns might happen, but I bet you have to buy a lot of units before you score one.

Goodwill Industries was the real winner the second time, I just backed up the truck and gave 99% of it to them.

Don

Originally Posted by robot

How real can this show be? Let's see...two guys in a Sprinter type vehicle drive from Iowa to Florida/California/Texas/way far and buy low priced junk to resell for a few hundred measly profit....and they have a facility back in Iowa with a full time clerk. Hmmmm....they must stop at a lot of casinos and win. This business model stinks.....I can see a guy "picking" locally and keeping his expenses down....but it would be a boring TV show.

Now, the Auction TV shows......a couple of us from work have gone to two storage auctions. The first was at a storage facility near the local Air Force base.....maybe some good stuff. At least 100 people showed up. The two of us had more teeth than all of the others combined. The nine units all had CRAP.....household junk like old clothes, mattresses with lots of stains, junk knock down furniture, tube type TVs, etc. Some went for $500......wow. The second month, we went to another auction....same result except there were a lot of people in tank tops with saggy tattooed boobs....and they were guys!!! Same junk.....in all, we saw perhaps 25 units sold but zero had anything remotely worth carrying away if it were free. So much for finding the NOS 32 fenders, a Model 12 Winchester and stuff like that.....unless I rent a unit and put my own stuff in it.

mike in tucson

Guys,
Let me help you out here. A couple of weeks ago we went to LeClaire, IA just to see Pickers. Trust me, my garage is bigger. The stuff you see is shot with a very narrow camera lens, just like on a Hollywood set. The Nash sits about 40' from the front of the store and the parking lot is between it and the building. There's probably room for 5 or 6 cars to park in their lot. The building is down an alleyway and the inventory leaves a lot to be desired. There are no deals and the sales (they were making) were for coffee cups, tee shirts and caps with the "Picker's" logo. Lots of people though and most of them were disappointed. I heard a lot of groans and some were very boisterous. I thought it was histerical. It's a freaking TV show for goodness sake and like all TV shows, the more BS the better it sells. Picker's, Pawn Stars, Storage Wars, etal are a lot of fun to watch but just remember, they're entertainment. How many shows would you watch if they conducted their business like all other businesses? Think about it, in Picker's case, you'd probably see one person nosing around an estate sale at 7:00 AM and ultimately buying a rocking chair for $4.00. Then they'd take it back to their shop, put a $25.00 price tag on it and it would sit for a couple of months. Are we talking ratings here?

I've gone to a couple of storage auctions and the one unit I kick myself for passing up was a 10 x 20 that was jammed full of Edsel parts. The guy must have either been a serious collector or in the business. There was everything from complete dashboards, to engines, to doors, hoods, seats, boxes of misc parts, and in one corner a standing stack of chrome side trim that must have been 3 feet around.

It didn't go for a lot, maybe $ 700 if I recall, but I just kept telling myself I was going to have to move all that stuff and where was I going to put it. But in hindsight I should have bought it, done research on what fit what, and sold each individual piece on Ebay. I could have made some good money, I bet.

But it was 95 degrees out and it looked like more work than I wanted to get into.

Don

Don, could you have called Goodwill to meet you at the storage locker?

I had an idea for Mini Warehouses.....get junk from Goodwill that they want to toss, put it in a locker and claim that it is an abandoned unit. Auction it for $$ and make money....heck, I would bet Goodwill would deliver their throw aways for free!!!

Robin, was this the one?
American Pickers 1937 Harley Davidson Knucklehead - YouTube

Originally Posted by MelloYello

Robin, was this the one?
American Pickers 1937 Harley Davidson Knucklehead - YouTube

yup,,thats it..

Yes,Roger,,wasnt sure exactly where it was,but I saw a road sign on the highway that mentioned Kansas City,so I didnt think it was too far away..

Gee,Don,,are things getting that hard up there on tv??I think it must be time to start a few good reruns of shows gone by that need to be seen again..

I've watched a few American Pickers shows and have just about given up hope that this staged show like so many of the DIY home or reality shows would get better. It hasn't - just gotten more ridiculous in what they seem to be paying. The fact that a 'seller' has a camera (or three, four or more) in his face just makes it stupid and unbelievable. I grew up with a mother and grandmother who were antiquers and was forced to wander the aisles and shops for too many hours so have a feel for what's good and its value. The junk they buy is beyond the top of anyone's price. The unfortunate part of this is that it has caused so many interesting things to be Barrett-Jacksoned - that is, just because it's old or been shined to perfection, it has to be worth lots of money and has killed any reasonable market. I don't watch this stupidity for the masses any longer!!

I would think that if a guy was to start believing the crap on these "spent $20.00 and made $20,000" shows and not think that results weren't exaggerated a bitto enhance TV ratings, the next thing to happen would be that he might start believing the crap we hear on the news!!!!

And the shows keep getting worse. Now they have American Hoggers where you get to watch a family shoot hogs, and some Hairy Biker show that looks to be about as lame. And let's not forget Car Fellas, about a bunch of NY used car salesmen. No wonder most of us spend so much time on here.

Don

I like american pickers, because the guys seem nice, I agree they tend to spend too much, and not make nearly enough, but the show is fun to watch. Storage wars is also fun to watch, but I noticed the other night they came to an auction and only had 1000 bucks to spend, because of loses on other units. Most of these shows, the folks own junk stores, or second hand shops, antique stores, etc..., I like the one older grey haired guy with a Hollywood look about him, who never seems to make any money on any storage locker that he buys, but still is there buying stuff. It is entertaining, but I wouldn't want to try and make a living by it!

Steve, that guy is Barry Weiss, who is pretty well known in the LA car culture. He has a bunch of collector cars, including the Cowboy Cadillac and a really neat COE truck. Here is a link with a cool video that tells you more.

Barry Weiss Car Collection Pictures Cowboy Cadillac | Blog Certified

Don

Cool link Don. Yep that's the same guy, and he is pretty funny. Nice car collection.

Robin...what channel is this on and when?
I've seen a couple of shows in the past and enjoyed them, and at the moment there's only thugby and cooking shows to watch.

(We've been buying dvds...watched a lot of 'MASH', 'Last of the Summer Wine', and "Rumpole' lately!)

Originally Posted by johnboy

Robin...what channel is this on and when?
I've seen a couple of shows in the past and enjoyed them, and at the moment there's only thugby and cooking shows to watch.

(We've been buying dvds...watched a lot of 'MASH', 'Last of the Summer Wine', and "Rumpole' lately!)

John,,its on Sky,,ch73,,History channel..7.30 Friday night..

Originally Posted by lamin8r

John,,its on Sky,,ch73,,History channel..7.30 Friday night..

Oh!
That explains why we don't see it.
We got rid of Sky, we worked out it was costing us around $1500 per year, and we can buy a lot of dvds for that, so we went 'Free to Air', its got Coronation St, and now search the 'Under $10' bins at The Warehouse for the good dvds.
As stovens says; The Last of the Summer Wine is one of many great series, and for under $10 we get four nights of watching pleasure.